Why you shouldn’t act on everything Google tells you to do

Considering their corporate mantra is “Do No Evil”, Google plays a very strong fear game.

Regular updates via spokespeople like Gary Illyes, Danny Sullivan and, formerly, Matt Cutts, keep everyone guessing and the fear building about what works in SEO.

Step over the line with your SEO and you’ll get a penalty.

Choose an Answer

Apply for free backlink

Takes less than 30 seconds

Click below

What type of business are you?

Choose an Answer

Agency

Freelance

Company marketer

My own websites

None of the above

10%

How many of your [answer:What type of business are you?] clients need links?

Choose an Answer

1-5

5-10

10-20

20+

None, I don’t have any yet

20%

How many links do you need to build per month?

Choose an Answer

1-5

5-10

10-20

20+

40%

What is a realistic monthly backlink budget for you?

Choose an Answer

$75 – $500

$500 – $1000

$1000 – $2000

$2000 – $5000

$5000 – $10,000

$10,000 +

45%

How do you currently build links?

Choose an Answer

In-house team

Agency / link building service

Freelancers overseas

None of the above

50%

How’s your link building knowledge?

Choose an Answer

Advanced / Expert

Average

Just starting out

60%

What are your go to tools for checking sites?

Choose an Answer

Moz DA

Majestic TrustFlow

Ahrefs DR

SEMRush traffic

Ahrefs Organic traffic

Others

70%

What are your biggest link building problems?

Choose an Answer

Links are too expensive

Higher quality links are hard to find

Need help from genuine experts

Don’t trust most link builders

Need faster link builders

Afraid of Google penalties

75%

What are the top 3 qualities you look for in a website when considering acquiring link from it?

Choose an Answer

Relevance to my niche

Moz DA score

Majestic Trust Flow score

Location of the site

Design and usability

Estimated search traffic

Site is visible for its keywords

75%

What sort of service appeals to you most?

Choose an Answer

Predictable numbers of links at an agreed quality level where I review and approve everything

Mostly high quality earned links using white hat tactics

Cheap links of an acceptible quality without any review process

80%

List up to 5 competing websites

Enter Your Details

90%

List up to 10 of your target keywords

Enter Your Details

90%

Your target website url for this trial

Enter Your Details

95%

Enter Your Details

I accept GDPR privacy policy

The problem is those lines are blurred and we get contradicting advice from different Google employees and ‘gurus’.

Here’s an example of a self-serving Google SEO instruction

We are recently being told to add a variety of tags to outbound links – as if no follow wasn’t already a controversial subject.

We’ve now got the tag rel=“sponsored” – this is used to tell Google whether you received compensation for a link or not. That’s interesting, as it clearly shows that they can’t identify a paid link from a freely given one.

Then there’s rel=“ugc” – this is to differentiate user-generated content like blog comments. Again, it’s surprising that Google can’t sort this type of content from native content on a website.

In the statement below, Google have openly admitted these shortcomings and it hints at there being little added value to a website for making the effort to add these tags. The gain is purely there for Google in my opinion.

“Links contain valuable information that can help us improve search, such as how the words within links describe content they point at. Looking at all the links we encounter can also help us better understand unnatural linking patterns. By shifting to a hint model, we no longer lose this important information, while still allowing site owners to indicate that some links shouldn’t be given the weight of a first-party endorsement.”

So, for any SEO professional that keeps an eye on updates, it’s clear that one should look at what works.

And not rely too much on the rumours that Google can spot any manipulative tactic from half a mile, because it isn’t true.

However, there are some SEO activities that we know Google has clarity on.